Bert's Travels: Canada ! I have arrived.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Canada ! I have arrived.

Hallo, everybody !
I have been here now two whole days and tonight it seems as if my "dogs" are preparing to go on strike.
I walked and walked and then I walked some more.
And, of course, I took many pictures. Some will be repetitions from earlier visits, but I shall take great pains to avoid duplications unless a specific reason calls for it.

Let me introduce you to a man called "Mel Lastman"
Mel was a Jewish boy with the greatest gift for convincing people of whatever he himself was convinced of.
From very small beginnings Mel built a large chain of Kitchen appliances: Stoves and Refrigerators.
He was so successful, people said, because he could easily talk an Eskimo into purchasing a Refrigerator from him.
He could also convince people of an idea.
The principle was simple: If I truly believe that something is a great idea, then why would anybody think otherwise ?
It follows therefore that Mel Lastman became a truly successful mayor of a city of about 500,000 inhabitants, called North York.
When North York amalgamated with 5 other cities situated in closest proximity to each other ( Toronto, York, East York, Scarborough, to form Metropolitan Toronto, who do you think became the Mayor of this now very large City. Mel ran his cities similar to the way he ran his business.
As best as I remember, under the guidance of Mayor Lastman, Toronto had no deficit.

It made sense that the area in front of the City Hall of "North York" should be called: Mel Lastman Square.

And now we come to the crux of this story:
Out of a little fountain at the entrance to the Square rises a column topped by a multi coloured, ever changing message board. I think that the messages thereon reflect the spirit of what is Toronto and ultimately Canada: